5 Leadership skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Getting to grips with the exponential impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, sooner rather than later, should be a priority for every leader no matter what business they are in. In our last post in the ALT to Reboot Leadership Series, we noted how cyber-physical systems, automation and the Internet of Things are combining to create exponential growth for businesses. Here is a bit more detail on the factors at play in a 4.0 system:

* People, devices, machines and sensors connect and communicate

* Virtual copies of the physical world are created, allowing for better contextualisation of information

* Technical assistance helps humans with decisions and tasks that are difficult or dangerous

* Autonomous decision making (decentralising decisions) starts with simple decisions being taken by cyber-physical systems[1].

The skills and experience to implement these systems are severely lacking. Organisations have what the World Economic Forum calls a ‘triple investment’ to make in reskilling: reskilling at-risk workers, upskilling the broader workforce and building structures for a learning organisation[2].

Given our focus in the leadership space, in this blog we wanted to lift out a set of requirements for leaders that resonate strongly for us, defined by Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, Richard Jolly.

1. Communication – that is effective and authentic in a world of information overload and hype

2. Reflection – to pause and make sense of what sometimes seems like chaos around us, and to learn from what we observe so that we apply it to the next ‘round’